Hundreds of riders get ready to set out for homecoming journeys in Jinjiang City, east China's Fujian Province.

FUZHOU, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Eager to return home before Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 28, thousands of migrant workers in east China's Fujian Province on Wednesday set out to ride home on motorcycles, beginning their arduous homecoming journeys of many hours or even days.

Many of the migrant workers choose to travel on motorcycles because it is cheap. It's also convenient as most migrant workers are from rural areas where public transportation is not so developed. Around major festivals, such as the Spring Festival, it is ubiquitous to see flocks of people riding on motorcycles on the road in southern China in recent decades.

Zhou Anping (L) dresses his wife Lyu Huazhen (R) in warm clothes. The couple have to ride for 1,300 kilometers from Fujian to their hometown in central China's Hubei Province. To stay warm is the key to such a trip in winter.

The weather in south China during winter is cold and humid. After hours' cycling, the road often gets slippery and visibility becomes poor. When the temperature drops, riders' visors are blurred by their breath, forcing them to open the visors and expose their faces.

Given all the hardship, the riders do not flinch a bit.

The journey ahead is grueling, but Zhang Yuanxue is full of excitement to go home in east China's Jiangxi Province. It's his fourth home ride on a motorcycle during Spring Festival.

Riders always carry large boxes of care for their loved ones on the back of the motorcycles, making their homecoming journeys very hard. The boxes contain gifts the migrant workers have bought in big cities for their family members living in rural areas.

China National Petroleum Corporation offers free hot food and fuel to migrant workers at its gas stops. The company has provided such service to homecoming migrant workers for six straight years. Normally, the riders take a short rest at gas stops before they continue their journeys home.

They appease their hunger with instant noodles at gas stops, expecting the big feast to be prepared by their beloved ones back at home on the eve of the Spring Festival, the most important occasion of reunion for the Chinese.

It's always the family bonds and dreams that drive the riders along. It is the moment to be with their families together that makes all the hardship on the road evaporate.

(All photos by Wei Peiquan)